T-Mobile, LG announce G-Slate 4G Honeycomb tablet at CES 2011

LG’s G-Slate tablet will come out on T-Mobile’s 4G network in the United States, the companies have announced at the CES 2011.

T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate 4G will compete with Sprint’s 4G BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom on Verizon. Like Motorola’s device, G-Slate too has a 10-inch screen. Of the three, however, Xoom will use Verizon’s relatively slow 3G network; while the other two will use next generation wireless technology. T-Mobile also has plans of launching Dell’s Streak 7 tablet on its 4G network which is said to be theoretically capable of data transfer at the rate of 42 mega bits per second.

T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ (evolved High Speed Packet Access) network is said to cover 200 million Americans, which is more than the reach of competitors Sprint and AT&T, according to the company. This year T-Mobile plans to upgrade its 4G network’s speeds to 42 Mbps from the current 21 Mbps. It says the network will then be able to download at a maximum of 30 Mbps and will upload at about 7 Mbps. However, in a demonstration it became clear that in real terms this means that the average song will take about 4 seconds to download. Related: State of 4G rollout in US

Photo: LG G-Slate Tablet

T-Mobile said the Dell’s Streak 7 and LG’s G-Slate are two of 25 new tablets scheduled for launch on its 4G network. The carrier offers the cheapest entry level 4G plans at $10 per month, but lacks service plans for heavy users.

We know very little about LG’s G-Slate. But because it uses Honeycomb, the device will support Google Maps 5 with 3D interaction and offline services; and it will be able to access more than 3 million Google eBooks. LG G-Slate will support widgets, multitasking, and notifications, and will also have Google Talk for video chats, besides being capable of downloading apps from the Android App Market.

There were earlier rumours that LG would produce an Optimus Tab, presumably to go with its Optimus smartphone – just like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S phone. However, this has clearly turned out not to be the case.

LG has had a tough time establishing itself in the smartphone market over the past year. The company’s first Android device LG Ally was released in May in the United States, about four months after the Google Nexus One smartphone was launched. With tablets, LG has wanted to get it right, and though G-Slate isn’t commercially available yet, there are many expectations from the new LG Android tablet.